This $16.5 million California ‘Sea Castle’ comes with funicular to the sand
A turreted, English Tudor-style estate in Laguna Beach is on the market for $16.5 million.
Known as the Sea Castle, this 1930s oceanfront property features a main house and two guest quarters, offering a total of seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms within 5,756 square feet. Records show Lona Ingwerson, remembered in The Laguna Beach Independent as an internationally sought-after inspirational speaker, Christian Science practitioner and “the emcee of Laguna Beach Community Concert Band performance at the Festival of the Arts and elsewhere,” purchased the home for $2.7 million in April 1999.
She died in July 2024 at 90.
When Ingwerson bought the property, it had already been expanded and redesigned from its previous 4,400 square feet by previous owner Terry Hamilton in 1985.
“It was the only shack in the price range I could afford on the ocean front,” Hamilton told the Orange County Register in 1988. “No one really paid much attention to it because they were stuck on the old house and how bad it was.”
The remodel took inspiration from Hamilton’s trip through Europe, studying the architecture there.
“I even got up in attics with workmen who were restoring old homes, asking about the particulars of construction that I could bring back for my architect and contractor,” he told the Register.
With its stone-clad turret entry, wave-patterned roof and diamond-paned windows, the main house features a great room with a wood-lined ceiling, a two-story curved fireplace and stone floors. French doors open to a terrace. A dining area also shares the space.
The kitchen boasts inlaid wood cabinetry, vintage range, breakfast nook and butler’s alcove.
Up the floating staircase, the primary suite features a sitting area, corner fireplace, wet bar, dual bathrooms and a walk-in closet. It opens onto a private deck with an ocean view.
There is a laundry room, ocean-facing family room and large loft-style office or den area.
The attached poolside suite has a private entrance.
Inside, there’s a living area, fireplace and sleeping area with an ensuite bathroom.
The grounds around the house include multiple terraces, a black-bottomed pool and spa, and a pathway—or ride the funicular—to Thousand Steps Beach below.
A contemporary coastal-style guest house with three bedrooms, a den and ocean-view patios built in 1994 is part of the carriage house. It has garage parking for three cars and a large motor court for additional off-street parking.
The listing agent is Victoria Strombom of Surterre Properties.